All 29 Chinese fishermen reportedly kidnapped by armed North Koreans earlier this month have returned home after they were freed at the weekend, the state Xinhua news agency said Monday.
The men were snatched by a group of unidentified gunmen as they fished in waters running between China and North Korea on May 8, and held for 13 days, according to earlier reports and witness accounts given to AFP.
It remains unclear who was behind the rare abductions. Xinhua said that no ransom had been paid and the men were released after "diplomatic exchanges" between Pyongyang and Beijing, the North's only major ally.
The state-run Global Times daily urged Pyongyang to clear up the question of who was responsible for the kidnapping, saying China would not tolerate "any misbehaviour by North Korea".
It quoted residents of the north eastern port city of Dalian, where the victims were from, as saying North Korean coastguards had in the past captured fishing boats and stolen fuel and other items … [Read more...]

Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and the Chinese national news agency, Xinhua have agreed to jointly organise dissemination of information to raise the two agencies’ prestige and promote their news products.
The agreement was reached between VNA General Director Nguyen Duc Loi and Xinhua leaders at their talks in Beijing on May 11 during the General Director’s visit to China from May 7-13.
They also agreed to further increase information on each country and their countries’ relationship based on the two Parties and States’ stance to create a positive, accurate and objective news current on bilateral ties, thus consolidating confidence and enhancing the two countries’ traditional friendship fostered by the Vietnamese and Chinese Parties and States’ leaders.
The news agency leaders discussed ways to promote bilateral ties, especially new media forms. They affirmed that the signing of a bilateral agreement on television cooperation opened a new page in the … [Read more...]

The alleged mastermind of a multi-billion dollar smuggling racket whose extradition to China sparked a bitter diplomatic row with Canada went on trial Friday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The trial of Lai Changxing began in Xiamen city in eastern Fujian province, where the alleged kingpin moved contraband reported to be worth between $6 billion and $10 billion before fleeing to Canada in 1999.
Lai is facing charges of running a criminal organisation that engaged in smuggling and bribery, Xinhua news agency said.
It was not clear how long the trial would last and the Xiamen intermediate court refused to comment on the case when contacted by AFP.
Lai was deported to China in July last year after he waged a 12-year battle against repatriation from Canada that tested the nerves of both nations.
He fled to Canada with his family in 1999 after the case emerged, rocking Fujian's political establishment and leading to the dismissal or arrest of numerous officials implicated … [Read more...]

China's state news agency Sunday urged world leaders not to stray off topic by addressing the nuclear programme of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) at a summit in Seoul this week on combating nuclear terrorism.
Republic of Korea (RoK) will host leaders and senior officials from 53 nations, including US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, for the two-day summit starting Monday.
DPRK is not on the formal agenda, but the communist state's plan to launch a rocket next month has overshadowed the run-up to the meeting.
"It is no surprise that the subject has stolen some of the limelight," China's Xinhua news agency said in a commentary. "However, the Seoul summit... is not an appropriate platform to address the question."
China is a vital diplomatic ally for DPRK, which depends on its Asian neighbour for food and fuel. Beijing on Friday urged restraint ahead of the mid-April launch of the DPRK rocket.
Nuclear-armed DPRK says the rocket will merely … [Read more...]

Deputy PM Hung welcomed the collaboration between the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and Xinhua in organising photo exhibitions to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and China in Hanoi and Beijing and hoped the events will help boost the two countries’ friendship. MR Hung took the occasion to highlight the two news agencies’ important role in the press system of each country. Together with the fine development of the Vietnam-China relationship under the motto “friendly neighbourliness, comprehensive cooperation, long-term stability and future oriented vision” and in the spirit of “good neighbours, good friends, good comrades and good partners” reached between the two countries’ senior leaders, the two news agencies would continue their solidarity, cooperation and exchange of experiences on modern press, said the deputy PM. The two news agencies will cover the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of … [Read more...]

Safety hazards have been found at almost 70 percent of firms handling dangerous chemicals inspected in Beijing since two massive blasts killed 114 people last week, including a branch of Asia's largest refiner Sinopec Corp, state media reported.
An inspection of 124 sites that stored dangerous chemicals in the Chinese capital found hazards at 85 firms, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Thursday, citing Beijing's work safety bureau.
Two of those firms were shut after inspectors found they did not meet appropriate safety standards.
The inspections were ordered after two huge explosions devastated an industrial park in the northeastern port city of Tianjin late on Aug. 12. More than 700 people were injured and thousands have been evacuated because of the risk posed by chemicals stored at the site.
State authorities have confirmed that more than 700 tonnes of the deadly chemical sodium cyanide were stored at the Tianjin warehouse that blew up.
Inspectors found that … [Read more...]

BEIJING - Riots in China's ethnically divided Xinjiang region on Wednesday left 27 people dead, according to state media which said police opened fire on "knife-wielding mobs".
Police shot at "mobs" who had attacked police stations, a local government building and a construction site, the Xinhua news agency said, citing local officials.
"Seventeen people had been killed... before police opened fire and shot dead 10 rioters," it said. The mobs were also "stabbing at people and setting fire to police cars", the report said.
Nine police or security guards and eight civilians were killed before police opened fire, the report said, adding that three other people were taken to hospital with injuries.
The clashes occurred early Wednesday in the Lukqun township of Shanshan County, Xinhua said, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the desert city of Turpan and about 250 kilometres from the regional capital Urumqi.
The reason for the violence was not immediately clear, and police in … [Read more...]

Authorities in Shanghai began the mass slaughter of poultry at a market after the H7N9 bird flu virus, which has killed five people in China, was detected there, state media said Friday.
The discovery of the virus in samples of pigeon came as health officials said they were treating a person for flu-like symptoms who had been in close contact with one of the dead, Xinhua news agency reported. There had previously been no evidence of possible human-to-human transmission.
Two more fatalities on Thursday brought the death toll from the virus to five -- four of them in Shanghai -- with the number of confirmed infection cases climbing to 14.
China's Ministry of Agriculture said Thursday the virus had been detected in pigeon samples collected at Huhuai wholesale agricultural market in Shanghai, Xinhua reported.
After gene sequence analysis, the national avian flu reference laboratory found the strain to be "highly congenetic with those found on persons infected with H7N9 … [Read more...]

BEIJING, Jan 20 – Foreigners visiting North Korea can now take their own mobile phones into the country, Chinese state media reported Sunday, citing an employee with the operator of the country's mobile network.
Chinese tourists pose for photos at a golf course which has been closed for over three years at the Mount Kumgang international tourist zone in North Korea on September 1, 2011. Foreigners visiting North Korea can now take their own mobile phones into the country, Chinese state media reported Sunday, citing an employee with the operator of the country's mobile network.
Photo: AFP
A technician with Koryolink, the North Korean-Egyptian joint venture that operates the 3G phone network, told China's official Xinhua news agency that the move took effect on January 7.
"We have tried hard to negotiate with the Korean security side, and got the approval recently," the technician, identified as an Egyptian, said, adding: "It has nothing to do … [Read more...]